I'm Failing and I Can't Get Up

Message to the Unemployed

By Brad Lindemann

The following is an excerpt from from Brad Lindemann’s forthcoming book, In Business For Life: What Being In Business For Life Has Taught me About the Business of Life.  Sign up for news and updates from PumpJack.me Thought Leader Marketing and Brad Lindemann.

 Few things will change a person more profoundly than the experience of standing in the unemployment line over a long period of time. I’ve met with many such people over the years and had the privilege of providing some with their first job in many months…sometimes years. Given the demographics of the IT industry, most of the unemployed people I’ve encountered have been men. As such, most were the primary breadwinners in their families. It’s been my painful privilege to walk with many of these men down the humble highway of unemployment. Given my own brief time in the unemployment line, I have a great deal of compassion and empathy towards anyone who’s out of work and usually go out of my way to help them find it. Unfortunately, I can’t help them all.

I never met our former employee, “Greg.” He worked out of our Denver office. Greg was very accomplished within a unique skillset that our largest client desperately needed. So, we were surprised when his contract was terminated early. Greg was devastated. Unable to find another job over the following 18 months, Greg took his life on New Year’s Eve. The news of his passing cut me to the core. I grieved the loss of the employee I never met and vowed to redouble my efforts to do all I could to help every unemployed person whom God brought into my life.

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